Men's Fencing

Joey Rafidi Captures Ninth Place at NCAA Fencing Championship

Senior Joey Rafidi

Mar 23, 2014

COLUMBUS, Ohio – For the second year in a row MIT senior Joey Rafidi (Los Angeles, Calif.) secured ninth place in the epee portion of the NCAA Fencing National Championship hosted by Ohio State on Sunday. The lone Division III qualifier in a field of 24 participants, he earned All-America honorable mention accolades to become the eighth fencer in program history to accomplish this feat.

Bolstered by freshman Cordelia Avery's (New York, N.Y.) 13th-place performance in the women's sabre pool on Friday, the Engineers ranked 18th out of 25 squads in the overall standings. Among the three Division III programs to participate in the national championship, the Cardinal and Gray recorded the highest finish, followed by Brandeis University at 21st and NYU at 22nd.

Like last year, Rafidi generated a ledger of 13-10, falling one spot shy of receiving All-America honors. En route to the program's seventh top-10 epee finish, he defeated pairs of opponents from Harvard, Penn, and Stanford in addition to topping foes from St. John's, Cleveland State, Ohio State, Columbia, Penn State, Duke, and Brown. One of Rafidi's victories came against eventual champion Yevgenly Karyuchenko (St. John's) while another was over semifinalist Alessio Santoro (Duke).

Penn State claimed top honors after finishing third last year. Princeton, the 2013 champions, was the runner-up while St. John's clinched third place.